To quickly and efficiently remove large amounts of snow from a surface, a snowplow is often mounted to a vehicle and moved along the surface to displace any snow accumulated thereon. Many municipalities, for example, employ a fleet of vehicles equipped with large snowplows for snow removal from city streets. However, when not in use, it is often desirable to remove the snowplow from the vehicle. A number of different hitch designs have been developed to removably mount a snowplow to a vehicle.
In many of these designs, a part of the hitch typically remains attached to the vehicle after removal of the plow from the vehicle. The part remaining on the vehicle generally include arms or other protrusions that project from the vehicle to engage the plow. When the plow is unhitched, the protrusions can be highly dangerous in that, in the event of a collision, the protrusions can worsen the damage caused by the collision and increase the likelihood of injury or even death to the occupants of the struck vehicle.
Conventional hitches can also obstruct access to the engine compartment under the hood of the vehicle, thereby complicating the routine maintenance of the vehicle.
Another disadvantage often associated with conventional hitch designs is the complexity and effort required to hitch and unhitch the plow to the vehicle. Often, a team of men is required to carry out the operation of aligning and hitching the snowplow to the vehicle. Additionally, because of the weight of the equipment involved, the hitching operation itself poses a danger to the operators.